ScotRail have confirmed that the temporary timetable brought in in response to growing staff absences due to the Omicron wave of Covid will end next week.

The temporary timetable was brought in in January to "provide greater certainty for customers on which services will operate."

On Monday, February 14 the company will resume the timetable that was in place at the end of 2021.

The firm say that at the height of the Omicron wave they had up to 450 staff absent and although they are currently dealing with 150 staff absences (including 50 drivers), they say the time is right to start offering more services again.

They will run around 2,000 trains daily, which is still fewer when compared to the pre-pandemic timetable

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “The introduction of some temporary changes to our timetable was important for our customers, providing a level of certainty during a challenging time.

“Those changes have allowed us to keep people moving across the country, and our staff worked flat out to run a safe and reliable railway in really difficult and continually changing circumstances.

“We still face significant challenges, with 150 staff absent, but with things improving, and restrictions across Scotland being relaxed, we are now able to safely reintroduce our full timetable of around 2,000 services a day.

“The pandemic is not over yet and we will still face some disruption due to staff absence, but we are confident of providing a reliable service for our customers.”

The company also plan to initiate a new timetable in May this year, that they say will bring an extra 150 services each day.

Again, those figures are based on Covid-era timetables. The number of services running on their planned May 2022 timetable will still be fewer than pre-pandemic.

Read more: ScotRail new timetable offers less services than pre-pandemic